If you told your average teenage boy that he could be paid to sit down and play videogames everyday, he might think he was dreaming. But not every average teenager can break world records with their refined video-gaming skills. For junior Arya Vaid, this dream became a reality once he achieved the fastest time in Nintendo’s Mario Kart “Cheese Land” track (1 minute and 42.695 seconds) and turned the heads of professional sponsors.

“It took about two days of determination, and once I finally beat the record, it was around midnight,” said Vaid, who reportedly had to subdue his celebration because of his sleeping parents.

Vaid, member of the #2 Mario Kart team in the world “Fatal Aces,” said that it all began as a fun way to pass the time, and he didn’t realize that he could soon become an elite player who could conquer the craft of the trade. He said that, in addition to extensive practice, there are special strategies to winning the races. He described two techniques, called Demon Sliding and Fire Hopping, which include a complex combination of staying in line, switching patterns of left and right hops and slides, boosting at appropriate and specific times, and maintaining momentum. His team recognizes him by the nickname “Blade”, which can be found on the official leaderboards.

“There was no turning back once I entered into the competitive online crowd,” Vaid said. “It started as a fun game and turned into a serious challenge.”

Only the top 3 teams in Division 1 of the game get sponsored, and the sponsors serve as managers that organize tournament entry fees and pay commision based on team and individual winnings; 2 hours a day of practice and scrimmage is encouraged by the sponsors, which Vaid considers fun work.

“My mom was initially super skeptical of the idea of my income being supplied by a videogame, but she found out that she could take it seriously and has supported me ever since,” said Vaid, who lives at home (and works from home) with his parents and younger sister.

Also in his free time, Vaid plays on the Parkway South Tennis team and has been a valuable participant in the Videogame Club too. Vaid plans on going into Pre-med in college, with his front-running options being St. Louis University and University of Missouri Kansas City. He intends on putting his earnings toward his school tuition fees and he plans on continuing this method of work for as long as he can. Although he says that Mario Kart can get repetitive after his reported 2,500 total played hours and counting, he states that he is transitioning into a different FPS game by Blizzard Entertainment  while Mario Kart is in its ‘off season’ until the new MK8 Deluxe is released. He said he hopes to become good enough in the new game to maintain his World-Record-Holding status.

“I don’t plan on giving up on Mario Kart,” said Vaid, in case word gets back to his sponsors, “But I have already starting trying out for competitive teams on the up-and-coming Overwatch and I think restarting the process of picking up skills is going to be fun.”